May 1, 2008 Issue

Last week, on April 22nd, the annual celebration of Earth Day took place. The first Earth Day was held 38 years ago, and since then, things seem to have gotten a bit worse.
We may talk about the environment more than we used to but it doesn’t appear to be helping to improve any aspect of our natural world.

I believe that global warming is taking place. The polar ice cap is melting. Waters around the world are rising. The quality of our air and our water is eroding. Fishery stocks in our oceans are being depleted. Endangered species are becoming more threatened. Urban sprawl and the disintegration of our rural communities are happening more rapidly than ever before.

We are a nation of consumers and we consume too much. Gasoline is just one of our addictions. The cars we drive are too big; and we own too many of them. We eat too many French fries and cheeseburgers. We drink too many beers. We purchase too many shoes. We build our houses too large. There are too many toys, video games, televisions and cell phones. There are too many magazines, newspapers, and books. There is too much packaging. Basically, there is too much of everything.

Getting the American public to cut their gasoline usage by 10 per cent might be the easiest energy saving task to accomplish. Getting the public to curtail their frantic consumption of crap will be much harder.

The people who are driving the environmental-crisis bandwagon are the typically liberal, elitist Hollywood crowd. Thank goodness that they are keeping the issue alive because the rest of us have neither the time nor the money to join the cause.

The business community is scrambling to find ways to make money off of the “Greening Movement”. They are going to have to come up with something more affordable than $20,000 solar panels that can save $20 a month in hot water bills.

Many people are busy worrying about health care for their families, particularly their children and their elders. The melting of the ice bergs may be an unfamiliar sight, but herds of fat people waddling out of McDonalds and all-you-can eat buffets is something we all see every day; particularly in rural areas. A diabetes epidemic is already on the way.

The educational system in our country is broken, particularly for the children of our middle class. Anything they are likely to learn about our environment will come from the boob-tube or you-tube, not from science classes in their schools. Our poorly educated children had better learn how to balance a checkbook and work with a deficit; because they are headed for a life of low wages. Unfortunately, most of them have high expectations.

Many of these children will fall into crime and drugs and our bizarre and Byzantine criminal justice system. So you’ll have to pardon the single mother, who works two jobs and tries to keep her children pointed in the right direction, if she can’t find the time to worry about the polar bears having ice flows to nap on.

And for the high minded folks who have enough money to step out and buy a hybrid car, how much would you really give to halt global warming? Purchasing carbon offsets and a Prius aren’t going to do it.

The rallying cry of all environmentalists is based on preserving the environment for future generations. How many people are there who are truly concerned and dedicated to this cause? My guess is that most people are selfish and aren’t concerned with anything that happens after they die. Some will be concerned with the welfare of their children, grand children, and maybe their great grand children. The prospect of the future of all mankind is a little too much for most of us to consider.

We have an economy that is in shambles, millions of people hanging on to their homes by their fingernails, and a military fighting an unending battle in the Middle East to keep the evil-doers from attacking us in Kansas. Women continue to demand the right to make choices regarding their own pregnancies. Those freaky same sex-people keep insisting on getting married. Tens of millions of Americans continue to break the law by insisting on smoking pot. And in this weird and wacky world, why not?

I’m pulling for Al Gore and Leonardo Dicaprio and their troops in the battle against global warming. On behalf of the rest of us, we pledge to catch up just as soon as we can catch our breath.

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